WILSON! WILSOOOON! That's the echo of my thoughts every time I have to talk about a plot that deals with the point of a lonely person on an island. "Castaway" is a movie that without saying much, leaves us with valuable life lessons.
Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is a businessman who is about to experience a big turnaround in his routine life when his plane crashes and his destiny leads him not to death but to an island that from now on will become his world and his unexpected home.
To tell the truth, I have always dreamed of being on an island and being able to live there long enough to enjoy its entire ecosystem. But I wouldn't want this to be like what happened to Chuck, who practically arrived with nothing and had to take a survival course in the middle of the situation.
I have liked this movie a lot since the first time I saw it. As an anecdote, I can tell you that in my house we had only one TV and so we had to take turns to watch a program or movie. One night while I was watching Castaway, my sister, without looking into the room, asked: "Are you watching TV?" And I answered: "Yes, I'm watching a movie". To which she replied, "No you're not. I can't hear anything".
And for those of us who have been able to enjoy this movie, it is not surprising to see some traces of silence during several scenes, many more while a certain character that I will mention shortly was still not arriving. Obviously we are talking about a totally lonely man on an island, so we can't think of long and nurturing dialogues, as the most we could expect is to see him talking alone or thinking out loud.
As time goes by, Chuck learns to do what is necessary to live: fishing, making fire and even being a dentist for himself, something for which one must be very brave, although if he had cried no one would have known it.
This man's life was not lost from the very first day of the accident for a strong reason, a hope that never wrecked or stopped shining in the middle of that storm: Kelly Frears (Hellen Hunt), his girlfriend whom he loved very much and is the woman who was always in his heart.
All in all, it is wise to say that a man's mind can do the impossible in order not to succumb to boredom and desolation, but even to create an imaginary friend? If so, then let's welcome a character named Wilson, that companion that Chuck needed so much and was very useful for our protagonist to stay somewhat close to sanity and not give up on his plan to leave the island.
My favorite scene is perhaps one of the saddest in the film and that is when Wilson is separated from Chuck. I don't know whether to cry or yell at Chuck "Don't be silly, that's a ball" but the truth is that this is a scene that especially affects me. The question I always ask myself when I get to this point in the movie is, "What would have happened if upon Chuck's rescue, he had been found with Wilson?" This is a question that leaves open my restlessness and also my imagination.
At this point we can draw many lessons, and the first one I cite is the way in which we take things in life for granted and underestimate the value of what we have. For example, everyone knows the scene where Chuck finds it very difficult to make fire, but later when he is rescued he realizes that he only needs a minimum effort of his thumb to light whatever he wants. This is a message of appreciation and sense of reality.
Another point that stands out is that excessive interest in work that among many things, perhaps makes us lose the greatest and most beautiful thing there can be: the love of a woman, and how postponing things so special to live can become that sad indecision for not doing the right thing at the right time. Sometimes we deprive ourselves of so many things because we are waiting for the perfect time and place, when the truth is that the best thing is what is right in front of you.
"Castaway" is probably a unique film within its genre because of what is done through the character and how an inanimate actor can be of great contribution to the plot of the film. Although I haven't seen it in a while, it is one of those that I have marked among my favorites and that I wish I could enjoy once again, even if it is in the company of "my personal Wilson".
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